Weekly Shonen Jump

Weekly Shonen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ,Shūkan Shōnen Janpu?) is a weekly shonen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies (2009). The chapters of series that run in Weekly Shonen Jump are collected and published in tankōbon volumes under the "Jump Comics" imprint every two to three months. The manga series within the magazine target young male readers and tend to consist of a large number of action scenes and a fair amount of comedy.

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Weekly Shonen Jump was launched by Shueisha on July 2, 1968 to compete with the already-successful Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shonen Sunday. The Weekly Shonen Jump's sister publication was a manga magazine called Shonen Book, which was originally a male version of the short-lived shōjo manga anthology Shojo Book. Prior to issue 20, Weekly Shonen Jump was originally called simply Shonen Jump as it was originally a semi-weekly magazine. In 1969, Shonen Book ceased publication at which time Shonen Jump became a weekly magazine and a new monthly magazine called Bessatsu Shonen Jump was made to take the place of Shonen Book. This magazine was later rebranded as Monthly Shōnen Jump before eventually being discontinued and replaced by Jump Square.

Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden, released in 1988 for the Famicom was produced to commemorate the magazine's 20th anniversary. It was followed by a sequel: Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin in 1991, also for the Family Computer. At its highest point in the mid-1990s, Weekly Shonen Jump had a regular circulation of over 6 million. In the last few years, its circulation has been about three million. In 2000, two more games were created for the purpose of commemorating the magazine's anniversaries. A crossover fighting game titled Jump Super Stars was released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. It was followed by Jump Ultimate Stars in 2006.

Weekly Shonen Jump, in association with parent company Shueisha, holds annual competitions for new or up and coming manga artists to create one-shot stories. The best are put to a panel of judges (including manga artists past and present) where the best are given a special award for the best of these new series. The Tezuka Award, named for manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka, is given for all different styles of stories. The Akatsuka Award, named for gag manga pioneer Fujio Akatsuka, is a similar competition for comedy and gag manga. Many Weekly Shonen Jump manga artists have gotten their start either winning or being acknowledged by these competitions.

WSJ is also the center of the Shueisha's branding of its main manga products due to the popularity and recognition of the series and characters published in it. Although the manga are published both in the main magazine as well as in the Jump Comics line, they also are republished in various other editions such as kazenban and "Remixes" of the original work, usually publishing series older or previously established series. The Jump brand is also used on the tankōbon released of their manga series, related drama CDs, and at "Jump Festa", a festival showing off the people and products behind the Weekly Shōnen Jump manga titles.

Jump NEXT! (ジャンプNEXT!,Janpu NEXT!?) is the seasonal edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump which is published on Japanese holidays, which was previously published under the name of Akamaru Jump (アカマルジャンプ,Akamaru Janpu?) The magazine features many amateur manga artists who get their one-shots published in the magazine. Akamaru Jump also puts additional one-shot titles by professional manga artists, which promote upcoming series to be published in the main magazine. Lately it's also featuring the last chapters of cancelled series from Weekly Shōnen Jump, such as Enigma and Magico. It also features yonkoma of popular series such as Death Note and Naruto. Jump NEXT! has had several other past special versions:

Aomaru Jump (青マルジャンプ,Aomaru Janpu?) is a single issue of Jump NEXT!. One-shots that were featured in Aomaru Jump were Dead/Undead, Shōgai Oyaji Michi!, The Dream, Mieruhito, Yūtō ☆ Hōshi, and Fuku wa Jutsu.

Jump the Revolution! (ジャンプ the REVOLUTION!?) is a special edition of Jump NEXT! that was published in two issues. Jump the Revolution! contained one-shots of upcoming Weekly Shōnen Jump series and soon to be Jump Square series.

V Jump (Vジャンプ,Bui Janpu?) was originally an off-shoot of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in a special issue called Weekly Shōnen Jump Tokubetsu Henshū Zōkan V Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ特別編集増刊 V JUMP?). The special issues lasted from 1992 through 1993. V Jump became its own independent anthology in 1993 for coverage of games, including video and card games.

Super Jump (スーパージャンプ,Sūpā Janpu?) was also originally an off-shoot of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in a special issue called Weekly Shōnen Jump Tokubetsu Henshū Zōkan Super Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ特別編集増刊 スーパージャンプ?). The magazine was published from 1968 to 1988. In 1988 it became a separate anthology for seinen.

In 1982, Weekly Shōnen Jump had a circulation of 2.55 million. By 1995, circulation numbers swelled to 6.53 million. The magazine's editor-in-chief Masahiko Ibaraki believes this was due to the magazine including "hit titles such as Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Rurouni Kenshin, and others." After hitting this peak, the circulation numbers began dropping again. By 2007, circulation was at 2.7 million.